When creative photographer and artist Francois Robert won a collection of old school lockers at an auction for $50, he didn’t have a clue as to what his creativity had in store for him.

Inside one of the purchased lockers, Francois found a human skeleton wired together. Immediately Francois didn’t know what to do with the skeleton, until more than a decade later:

The skeleton lay hanging in his studio for over a decade, until a lack of work due to the recession encouraged Francois to turn the bones into art. But because the parts were wired together for educational purposes, Francois decided to trade his skeleton in for a box of real human bones.

Francois has since created a set of images for a collection of artwork titled “Stop the Violence,” in which he painstakingly spends hours arranging bones from a human skeleton to produce simple designs. The designs he creates depict words or symbols, a machine gun, the word “WAR,” a skull a bones.

For this collection of work, Francois has received many awards and recognition through‒out the world.

If you were to ask him today whether or not he knew what would become of the $50 bid he made at that auction so long ago, Francois would certainly tell you that he had no idea. It’s a powerful lesson on the power of creativity: wait for it, and when the timing is right you could be creating award‒winning and avant-garde works of art.

Be sure to check out more photos from Stop the Violence for some unique creative inspiration.